A speculative road film that unfolds through cultural memory of the US war in Vietnam, the work follows three women, recently reprogrammed by an artificial intelligence that has wiped all traces of their previous lives, as they journey through an uncanny desert landscape to a nearby metropolis. In Nguyen’s hands, these figures without memory or history become a cinematic use case for themes of alienation, assimilation, and refusal. Freely combining genre, fact, and fiction, the film draws on its Southern California locations’ postmodern glass facades, mimetic architecture, and roadside infrastructure—markers of car culture’s entanglement with American expansionism and cinema history alike—to uncover the more ineffable links between collective consciousness and the Cold War military-industrial complex. Nguyen’s first major live-action project (in which she also appears) underlines recurring themes in her work, which spans film, new media, installation, sculpture, printmaking, and writing. For the artist, embodied performance bridges research and lived experience, and is also a means to engage with emergent technologies.

- Sophie Cavoulacos, Associate Curator. Dept of Film, MoMA

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'history as hypnosis' was produced with generous support from New York Foundation for the Arts’ Artist Fellowship in Film/Video, NYSCA’s Wave Farm MAAF Grant, MIT List Visual Arts Center, and film production company, Rug & Vase.

Flyer Design by Wes Adams 
Film produced by Rug and Vase 

Image above: Installation view, Wallach Gallery, history as hypnosis V02, 2023, three-channel video, color, stereo sound, 32 minute loop; 42” monitors, monitor stand, metal seating. Right: Alison Nguyen, history as hauntology V.01, 2023, severed Seville, casters, dirt, electronic parts, LED lights, 109”1 x 61”w x 65”h.

Photo Credit: Alison Nguyen